[hserus]

Night driving isn't quite a good idea on that road at the moment. May I suggest you just take the ksrtc airavat buses or a shatabdi, and then rent a zoomcar or use uber / ola for the days you'll be in Chennai?

The road before / after the walajahpet toll is bad, and then when you hit porur it becomes both narrow and bad. The roads in and around kanchipuram are still bad. Potholes will make it a wearying experience for you to drive at night even if your vehicle is fitted with more powerful headlamps / you use high beam.

[adutta2k]

Originally Posted by prabhuferrari

Drove from Sahakar nagar to saligramam. Post walajah horrible roads for first 10 kms. Then better. Worst is good roads and pothole out of nowhere.

Is it only these 10 kms which are bad? Is the rest of the stretch in driveable condition?

Originally Posted by Seek

I drove yesterday and took the poonamalee - sriperunbedur - vellore - krishnagiri route. Potholes are terrible. Had some nasty suprises and was carrying my cycle on the bike rack as well so had to really slowdown at places. Was bad from the time I hit poonamalee till just a bit before vellore. Just a few patches had work going on to repair them.

Can you please give details of the areas which are in broken condition?

[Dieseldunk]

+1 to that. The stretch between vellore and poonamalee is not very good.
If you have to attend a meeting early in the day advisable to either travel previous day in day time or take the bus or train.
Driving usually creates fatigue and even more on bad roads.

[hamster]

Originally Posted by adutta2k

Seems like the highway till Vellore is in good condition (with some minor construction work before Krishnagiri as shown by Google maps), but post that there are some broken patches. Can anyone please guide me as to what portions are in bad shape and to what extent. I will be driving alone and since I have to reach Chennai early in the morning I need to cover the distance at night. I have preciously driven to Chennai but that was a long time back and that too during the day. So any tips would be really appreciated.

The Highway till Vellore and a little bit beyond (~25+ kms) is smooth and no issues with that. Havent seen any construction work before Krishnagiri though and any borken patches too.

Post that when you hit the Chennasamudram toll, is where the nightmare begins, all the way till Sriperumbudur.
As hserus had also mentioned, would advice against driving in the night and even during dawn(6 am) due to fog reducing the visibility.

Have seen Thick Fog at 07:30 AM in the Krishnagiri-Vaniyambadi-Ambur stretch a couple of weeks ago.

We drove during the day of Christmas and started at 03:30 AM and reached Kanchipuram by 07:30 AM. We escaped the fog, by the time we reached Kanchi. The only thing we had to deal with is the truck traffic early in the morning, which was manageable.

[sairamboko]

Returned to Bangalore from Chennai yesterday. The roads are now better but since it's two lanes till chennasamudram, we are not able to hit good speeds. Reached Bangalore Electronic City in 5.5 hours in my nano

On the dreaded Ranipet-Chennai section: while most of the potholes and craters have been patched up, there are still some left out. Today early morning, I drove at 80 kmph using cruise control in most of the dreaded sections. I remember two unattended deep potholes at Sunguvarchattiram bypass, waiting to break an axle or two of some innocent vehicles. I took Porur-Vadapalani Arcot Road to reach my home. I found black-topping going on in full swing at many places on Arcot Road.

[ravib]

Drove from Madras Vadapalani to Bangalore last Saturday 2nd Jan 2016. Started at sharp 12 noon and reached Silk board at 4.45 pm

I would say the road sections between Vadapalani to Chennasamudram Toll is now 1000 times better than how it was in November 2015. Finally some sense to pay toll in the stretch as majority of the stretch is now patched up. Only few small stretches as bad before & after Kanchipuram bridge and few potholes occasionally in the entire 110 kms stretch. The roads are not horrible or worse now, though not great either. May be can be categorized as below average roads and can do decent speeds. I was able to reach Chennasamduram toll in 1.5 hours due to less traffic in noon. Beyond Chennasamudram Toll roads are great as usual.

FASTag helped a lot till Krishnagiri toll. Spent maximum 1 minute overall for all tolls put together till Krishnagiri. Unfortunately, still in Krishnagiri FASTag is not enabled.

Hope they activate it soon.

-Ravi

[ramanak]

Drove to Bangalore and back yesterday via Chittoor route.Left home at 3 AM.There was heavy fogging in Chittoor - Mulbagal stretch visibility was very poor (20-25 feet). There was light fogging in Chennai- Chennasamudram stretch at some places.It is better to avoid Chittoor route for early morning trips with such conditions since it is an undivided 2-lane for most part.

[PatchyBoy]

Did B'lore-Chennai-B'lore yesterday.

KR Puram to Mulbagal - good divided road. Small stretch before Mulbagal yet to be finished. Poorly marked. Expect 3 barrels kept to block off one lane and post that oncoming traffic for about a kilometer.

Mulbagal to Palamaner - Good road. Two lane undivided, but smooth surface

Palamaner - Gudiyattam - Pallikonda - Good roads for the most part. One culvert washed away in the recent rains and work is going on. Temporary mud road in place. Roads between Gudiyattam and Pallikonda has suffered surface damages due to rains. Uneven surface, but no deep potholes.

Pallikonda Toll to Nemili Toll - Awesome 4 lane divided road. Smooth drive

Nemili Toll to Chennai - The roads after the Nemili toll all the way to Chennai are really bad. Sudden pot holes are abundant. Following a Bus/Truck can be hazardous. People were weaving across lanes to avoid potholes and the traffic was surprisingly heavy.

[hserus]

In other words from your and the previous post, don't touch the chittoor kolar route, stick to vellore - krg - hosur.

Thanks much, I need to drive down again in a couple of days.

Hi - from whitefield KIADB (near the sathya sai hospital) google maps insists on routing me through SH35 and then NH4 chittoor kolar. As others have pointed out, the chittoor kolar road has some horrible patches, so the golden quadrilateral route through hosur is going to be much better.

If I need to get onto the GQ route, do I really need to come all the way into the city back to sarjapur and then take hosa road to get to e city -> hosur etc? Or is there a shorter route? Thanks!

[hamster]

Originally Posted by hserus

If I need to get onto the GQ route, do I really need to come all the way into the city back to sarjapur and then take hosa road to get to e city -> hosur etc? Or is there a shorter route? Thanks!

You can try this route :
EPIP - Borewell Road - Whitefield Main Road (Forum Value Mall) - Varthur Kodi-Varthur-Gunjur-Sarjapur-Bagalur-Hosur

The roads are bad in Borewell road and between Varthur and Gunjur.
Post Gunjur till Sarjapur its manageable and after that its a bliss of two-laned winding roads till Hosur.

https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Be...9127!3e0?hl=en

[PatchyBoy]

Originally Posted by hserus

In other words from your and the previous post, don't touch the chittoor kolar route, stick to vellore - krg - hosur.

Not sure how you came to that conclusion from my post. The problem stretch is Nemili Toll to Chennai, which is on the GQ.

Originally Posted by hserus

If I need to get onto the GQ route, do I really need to come all the way into the city back to sarjapur and then take hosa road to get to e city -> hosur etc? Or is there a shorter route? Thanks!

You might want to try this route.

ITPL - Hope farm - Chikka Tirupathi - Bagalur - Berigai - Shoolagiri - Krishnagiri.

Advantages -

• Reasonably good road with sparse traffic
• Completely avoid Bangalore City traffic

Disadvantages -

• Two lane undivided roads
• Occasional broken stretches

Map Link

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by PatchyBoy

Did B'lore-Chennai-B'lore yesterday.

KR Puram to Mulbagal - good divided road. Small stretch before Mulbagal yet to be finished. Poorly marked. Expect 3 barrels kept to block off one lane and post that oncoming traffic for about a kilometer.

Mulbagal to Palamaner - Good road. Two lane undivided, but smooth surface

Palamaner - Gudiyattam - Pallikonda - Good roads for the most part. One culvert washed away in the recent rains and work is going on. Temporary mud road in place. Roads between Gudiyattam and Pallikonda has suffered surface damages due to rains. Uneven surface, but no deep potholes.

Pallikonda Toll to Nemili Toll - Awesome 4 lane divided road. Smooth drive

Nemili Toll to Chennai - The roads after the Nemili toll all the way to Chennai are really bad. Sudden pot holes are abundant. Following a Bus/Truck can be hazardous. People were weaving across lanes to avoid potholes and the traffic was surprisingly heavy.

In case you wish to avoid Walajah-Sriperumbudur road on the GQ, then go via Chittoor, Pallipettu, Nagari, Tiruthanni and Tiruvallur before joining the NH near Motel Highway.
I traveled by this route while coming to Bangalore and the roads were very good.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by PatchyBoy

Not sure how you came to that conclusion from my post. The problem stretch is Nemili Toll to Chennai, which is on the GQ.

You had mentioned some washed away culvert with a temporary mud road and other issues on the palamner to Pallikonda stretch.

That is manageable though you're saying, compared to nemmili toll to chennai?

thanks!

[sourav9385]

Originally Posted by ravib

...FASTag helped a lot till Krishnagiri toll. Spent maximum 1 minute overall for all tolls put together till Krishnagiri. Unfortunately, still in Krishnagiri FASTag is not enabled.

Hope they activate it soon.

-Ravi

Hey there!

Are you saying that FASTag works on the Chennai Bangalore highway?